ChemChina wins shareholder backing it needed for Syngenta takeover
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
ChemChina has secured its $43bn takeover of Syngenta after more than 80 per cent of the Swiss agribusiness’s shareholders approved China’s largest cross-border acquisition.
The Chinese state-owned chemicals group said on Friday that 80.7 per cent of shares had been tendered by the end of the offer period on Thursday evening – above the 67 per cent minimum required for the deal to go ahead.
When the deal was announced more than a year ago, investors were initially sceptical whether the deal would go ahead amid fears about regulatory, security and financing issues. But ChemChina cleared the final two main hurdles earlier this month when it won US and EU regulatory approval.
ChemChina is offering $465 a share in cash. In early trading on Friday, Syngenta’s shares were up 0.4 per cent at SFr 461.10.
The deal is one of a trio of megamergers that are reshaping the $100bn global agrichemical and seeds industry. The others are Dow Chemical’s $140bn merger with DuPont and Bayer’s $66bn purchase of Monsanto.
ChemChina has said it will keep Syngenta’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and that four out of its ten directors will be independent.
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